About us

Ot/tra creates furniture for workplace, hospitality, and residential interiors. Although we officially established the company in 2016, we’ve been designing furniture since 2010, when we founded Zimmerman Workshop Architecture + Design. What we bring to our architectural projects we offer here as well: technical rigor, meticulous detailing, quality construction, and a softened contemporary aesthetic.

Our appreciation for furniture extends well beyond it meeting aesthetics and functional needs. We love that it may also delight the eye with an artful gesture, or be that forever piece that’s witness to joyful moments over the years, and that it can be of a quality that only gets better with age.

Why Ot/tra? We named it after our children, Otto and Petra, who have blended right into our world of running a family business. Otto quietly works alongside us on his Lego projects. Petra may spend mornings with us shopping for stone slabs, fabric, and rugs—with enthusiasm, or lack thereof, depending on the material in question. (Not to be forgotten in all of this is our sweet westie Dolly June, who comes to work with us every day and manages to say everything, without actually saying anything.) Someday Otto and Petra will realize that not all parents drag their kids to places like George Nakashima’s studios in rural Pennsylvania and Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Hopefully they’ll be grateful we did.

One of the pleasures of our work—as designers and as parents—is the constant reminder that simple, honest beauty is everywhere. We strive to create it with our work, and teach our children to look for it, know its value, and especially in cases of our natural environment, respect and care for it. We love what we do, and we’re excited to share it with you.